Road Trip Cost? Gasoline, Hotel, Food, Toll, etc.?

In the rural areas, the speed limit is 70 mph and most people drive around 73-77 mph on the highways.

Gas is between $2.50 and $3.50 / gallon throughout the country.

Rental cars get between 18-25 miles / gallon.

Tolls: Some states don't have any, some states have them every couple of miles.

Between gas, food, and tolls, $150-$200 a day is a good estimate.

Food: $30-$50 per person per day.

You can eat at McDonalds for about $5-8 per meal, but McDonalds gets old quick, and after a couple of days, you'll want something else. Trust me ;-)

If you're in New York City, double the costs for just about everything.

Hotels: Wide variety, depending on location, quality, and season.

A roadside hotel in a rural area can run from $60 to $125 a night in the Midwest or South, or $100 to $175 in the Northeast.

Hotels Tip: Throughout America, the local sales tax and local hotel tax are never included in advertised prices. Therefore, your bill will always be about 15-20% higher than the advertised price. $39.99 will become about $48.37 when you pay the bill.

East Coast: Americans tend to think of the east coast as three sections: The Northeast (Washington DC to Boston), the eastern part of The South (Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia), and Florida (a region all its own)

West Coast: there's southern California (Los Angeles and San Diego), northern California (San Francisco), and the Northwest (Oregon and Washington state).

My advice is to pick one of those six regions, or something in the middle, and make that your vacation, rather than trying to cover the entire country.

I would calculate around 150 a day. Some tips, rent a small car, uses less gas, and don't take the insurance, if you have a credit card, which covers it, saves you a bundle. Motels are cheaper, away from big cities and the Highways. Food can be costly, depends what you want. I have done trips on 65 a day with a car and on 4 Dollar with tent and bike. A trip with my wife, any given day on vacation cost me 500 Dollar, doesn't matter, what I do.

(I would watch Speed limits in the USA, the troopers have no humor, you can go just 8% over speed limit, but never, ever more. Toll is usually just a dollar here and there, not on all Highways, some bridges have higher toll.)

Does the $5,000 include airfare costs? If it does, then no way will you spend 6 weeks in the US. The best way to figure out car rental costs is to go to any travel website and the individual car rental websites and look up the costs for the weeks you intend to visit. The cost of the rental will vary depending on where you pick it up and when you rent. The additional charge for a one way rental can be as low as $50 or over $1,000. I looked into renting a car and driving across the US from NYC to CA (don't remember the city) and the rental charge was about $250. Tho one-way charge was like $1,500. Needless to say, I didn't go. To really get a handle on what anything will cost, you need to come up with some at least rough plan for your trip. Hotel prices vary greatly. Fuel prices can vary greatly (and are headed to $5 a gallon easily if things keep going the way they are). Food is relatively inexpensive in the US and to keep costs down you can always pick up a cooler and some groceries to keep costs way down. Right now, your best plan is to get yourself a USA guide book (Frommer's, Fodor's, Michelin, whichever you prefer or whichever you local library has available) and a good size USA map. Pick the places you want to see most and then figure a way to get there. Adjust the plan as necessary (due to costs and distances).